''Duplus'' was a diving support and sample drilling ship for the petrol industry. She was designed and built for use in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

towards the end of the 1960s. Most probably, she was the world's first ship built to the

SWATH A small waterplane area twin hull, better known by the acronym SWATH, is a catamaran design that minimizes hull cross section area at the sea's surface. Minimizing the ship's volume near the surface area of the sea, where wave energy is located ...

design principle. After two years of trials and initial use, she was rebuilt into a hybrid form between SWATH ship and

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

History

''Duplus'' was designed by the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

construction office Trident Offshore. She was built as hull #1033 at Boele's Scheepswerf & Machienefabriek N.V. in Bolnes, Netherlands. In 1969, she was launched and sea trials started. The owners, the Netherlands Offshore Company (original name Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Werken Buitengaats), expected her experimental concept to deliver a usability in rough seas greater than what was known of single-

ull Ull or ULL may refer to: Organisations * SK Ull, a Norwegian Nordic skiing club * Non-Party List (), a short-lived political party in Liechtenstein * Ullensaker/Kisa IL, a Norwegian sports club * University of La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain * Un ...

ships. Starting in 1969, ''Duplus'' was active in the North Sea for 15 years, performing duty as a diving support ship, for drilling seabed samples and as a standby vessel. After a sale to McDermott, Inc. in 1980, she was renamed to ''Jaramac 57'' and registered in Panama. In 1984, she was sold to International Underwater Contractors and renamed to ''Twin Drill''. Under this name, she was active in the Gulf of Mexico for another ten years. After being laid up for an extended period, she was broken up in Mobile, AL in 2004.

References

* ''Boele-Bolnes launch twin-hull craft for offshore work.'' In: ''Holland Shipbuilding.'' vol. 17 (1968), Nr. 9 (November), pg. 58 * ''Tewaterlating Catamaran "Duplus".'' In: ''Schip en Werf de Zee.'' Nr. 25, vol. 35 (1968), pg. 577 * ''Twin-Hull vessel "Duplus" for Netherlands Offshore Company.'' In: ''Holland Shipbuilding.'' vol. 17 (1969), Nr. 12 (February), pg. 54-60 * Jan L. Arps (Trident Offshore Co.): ''The Role of the Semi-Submersible Work Vessel In Offshore Production Operations.''; Fifth Annual Offshore Technology Conference. Houston, TX., USA. 29. April 29 - 2. Mai 1973 * ''Oilman's support fleet.'' In: ''Design'', London, UK, {{ISSN, 0011-9245. Nr. 296, August 1973, pg. 44-45 * ''Hull aids Gulf Exploration.'' In: ''

Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (often abbreviated as ''PM'' or ''PopMech'') is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do it yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation an ...

.'' August 1985, pg. 65 * ''Duplus - the first Dutch SWATH.'' In: ''Schip en Werf de Zee.'' December 2004, pg. 19 Small waterplane area twin hull vessels Ships built in the Netherlands 1969 ships